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HELD AT THE CAPITOL, IN THE CITY OF ALBANY, ON THE TWENTYSECOND DAY OF MAY, 1899.

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JOURNAL OF THE SENATE.

EXTRAORDINARY SESSION.

STATE OF NEW YORK:

SENATE CHAMBER, IN THE CITY OF ALBANY,

MONDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 1899.

Prayer by Rev. Dr. W. W. Battershall.

Pursuant to the following proclamation of the Governor, the Senate convened in the Senate Chamber, and was called to order by the President.

STATE OF NEW YORK-EXECUTIVE CHAMBER.

Pursuant to the power vested in me by section 4 of article 4 of the Constitution, I hereby convene the Legislature in extraordinary session at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, on Monday, the 220 day of May, at 8 o'clock in the evening.

Given under my hand and the privy seal of the State, at the Capitol, in the city of Albany, this seventeenth day of [L. S.] May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine.

By the Governor :

WILLIAM J. YOUNGS,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Secretary to the Governor.

By direction of the President, the Clerk called the roll, and the following Senators answered as their names were called:

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Mr. Chahoon offered the following:

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed to wait upon the Governor, and inform him that the Senate is convened and ready to proceed with business.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative.

The President appointed Messrs. Chahoon and Foley as such committee.

Messrs. Chahoon and Foley, the committee appointed to wait upon the Governor, and inform him that the Senate had convened and was ready to proceed with business, reported that they had performed that duty.

Mr. D. F. Davis offered the following:

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed to wait upon the Assembly, and inform that body that the Senate is convened and ready to proceed to business.

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was decided in the affirmative.

The President appointed Messrs. D. F. Davis and Graney as such committee.

Messrs. D. F. Davis and Graney, the committee appointed to wait upon the Assembly, and inform that body that the Senate had convened and was ready to proceed with business, reported that they had performed that duty.

Messrs. Kelsey and G. T. Kelly, a committee from the Assembly, appeared before the Senate and announced that the Assembly had organized and was ready to proceed with business.

Mr. Ellsworth offered the following:

Resolved, That the employes of the last regular session, elected or appointed pursuant to the provisions of the Legislative Law, be and hereby are appointed and elected as the employes of this extra-. ordinary session."

The President put the question whether the Senate would agree to said resolution and it was decided in the affirmative, as follows:

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A message from the Governor, at the hands of his secretary, was received and read in the words following:

To the Legislature:

STATE OF NEW YORK

EXECUTIVE CHAMBEr, ALBANY, May 22, 1899.

I have called you together in extraordinary session for the purpose of considering the subject of the taxation of franchises. My message to the Legislature of March 27, 1899, ran in part as follows:

"At present the farmers, the market gardeners and the mechanics and tradesmen having small holdings, are paying an improper and excessive portion of the general taxes, while at the same time many of the efforts to remedy this state of affairs, notably in the direction of taxing securities are not only unwise, but inefficient, and often serve merely to put a premium upon dishonesty."

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"There is evident injustice in the light taxation of corporations. I have not the slightest sympathy with the outcry against corporations as such, or against prosperous men of business. Most of the great material works by which the entire country benefits have been due to the action of individual men, or of aggregates of men, who made money for themselves by doing that which was in the interest of the people as a whole. From an armor plant to a-street railway no work which is really beneficial to the public can be performed to the best advantage of the public save by men of such business capacity that they will not do the work unless they themselves receive ample reward for doing it. The effort to deprive them of an ample reward, merely means that they will turn their energies in some other direction; and the public will be by just so much the loser. Moreover, to tax corporations or men of means in such a way as to drive them out of the State works great damage to the State. To drive out of a community the men of means and the men who take the lead in business enterprises would probably entail, as one of its first results, the starvation of a considerable portion of the remainder of the population."

"But while I freely admit all this, it yet remains true that a corporation which derives its powers from the State should pay to the State a just percentage of its earnings as a return for the privileges it enjoys. This should be especially true for the fran

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